New power rankings from The Athletic show how tight Royals’ Wild Card race really is

It’s no secret at this point that the Kansas City Royals have difficult task ahead of them if they hope to reach their second consecutive postseason.

Credit to them though because at certain points this season they looked down and out, but they climbed their way back up to the point where they could be buyers at the deadline, and since then have brought themselves to a point where they sit under 3.0 games back the final American League Wild Card spot.

That being said, those aforementioned early season struggles they endured have gotten them to a point where September will be far from comfortable for them. The Royals may sit only 2.5 games back of the Seattle for that final postseason spot, but they aren’t the only one’s hovering around them, as both the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Guardians are well within the hunt for the AL’s final postseason berth.

And based on how The Athletic ordered their latest power rankings, it seems like it’s anyone’s race to win, with the season’s final month the determinate of who’s dancing and who will spend October watching MLB’s postseason festivities from the couch.

Royals’ AL Wild Card set to be neck-and-neck race according to The Athletic

As mentioned already, entering Tuesday’s post-Labor Day action, the final AL postseason spot currently belongs to the Mariners with the Rangers, Royals and Guardians currently chasing them.

So, when The Athletic made their weekly MLB power rankings, it just made sense that they’d order these four teams together in a manner that mirrored the current AL standings, with Seattle sitting 12th, the Rangers 13th, the Royals 14th and the Guardians 15th.

The Royals were the only team on this list that stood pat with the Guardians and the Rangers rising to the spots they are now and the Mariners dropping to theirs.

This makes sense for Kansas City given the confusing .500 week they just endured. They narrowly avoided catastrophe against the White Sox early in the week as they only just managed to come out of that three game set victorious and then they proceeded to drop their home series to the Tigers over the weekend, two games to one.

The Rangers and Guardians on the other hand decided to make this a true race this past week, as the former went 5-1 and are currently in the midst of six game winning streak, while the latter went 4-2 to claw their way back to a winning record (which a Monday loss to start the week erased).

The Mariners on the other hand are reeling at the moment. A .500 record last week saw them become vulnerable to the surge of the team’s below them, single-handedly allowing one of them back into the race themselves after dropping their weekend series to Cleveland.

This sets up a chaotic final month for the Royals, as while the Wild Card may within reach, their current postseason odds entering Tuesday’s series opener against the Los Angeles Angels (according to FanGraphs) are long ones at 10.8%.

Looking at strength of remaining schedule, according to Tankathon, Kansas City holds a reasonable remaining slate of games in September with an opponent’s winning percentage of .503, placing them in the middle pack at 14th.

This is only .001 lower than the Guardians who are tied for 15th and much better than the Rangers, who have one of the hardest remaining schedules of anyone in baseball with a fourth-ranked .522 opponent’s winning percentage.

The problem is though, the Royals may be in competition with those teams, but they’re not chasing them. They’re chasing the Mariners, who hold the sixth-easiest remaining slate in the league with a .476 opponent’s winning percentage.

For the Royals though, they’ll need to control what they can control and take care of business when facing other teams in the race, similar to what they did a few weeks ago against the Texas Rangers when they took the four-game set against them three games to one.

Kansas City still has four games against the Guardians from Sept. 6-9 and then three pivotal games against the Mariners the following week from Sept. 16-18. These are the games that will be the Royals best opportunity to make up ground and could possibly place destiny in their own hands if all goes well.

For now though, putting forth a good effort in their series against the flailing Angels to start the week will be on the forefront of the Royals’ minds, as they’ll look to start September with a bang.